Quote:It's why he can't help but make contact with an opposing player when sliding into a base.

It's why he views each individual pitch as a competition in and of itself.

And it's why, for the early part of his freshman year at least, he was loathe to do anything other than swing while at the plate.

“He's got the football mentality. Hard-nosed, 'I want to compete,'” Florida State assistant Mike Martin Jr. said. “And sometimes you feel like you're not competing when you take a walk, but that's winning baseball.”

That's something that Stewart, a former two-sport star at The Bolles School in Jacksonville, has had to learn.